The 2004 Lok Sabha General Elections India

The latest Outlook magazine (out on stands on 6th March)
predicts an easy win for the BJP and its allies in NDA.
According to the Outlook MDRA poll, The NDA is easily going to
win 290 seats (=/-10) and the Congress will end up with 159-169
seats in the coming Lok Sabha elections.

Of course, if
Outlook's past polls are any indication, the Congress will romp
home in the general elections with a thumping majority! That was
what happened the last time Outlook predicted the results of the
Gujarat elections and the recent assembly elections. Except that
this time, Outlook seems to be following conventional wisdom.

Status
updates on the 2004 general elections

Who is joining which party?

Yukta Mookhey, Maushumi Chatterjee and Celina Jaitley joins
the congress. Govinda may contest for Congress, but no details
on that yet.

BJP has inducted Suresh Oberoi (someone told me
he was inducted earlier too!), Bangarappa and inducted and
evicted D P Yadav in the face of harsh public criticism.

How
these political newbies are going to help the BJP or NDA in the
2004 general elections is unclear, but in the countdown to
voting, they help BJP hog media space. The poor guys in Congress
had nobody joining them till 5th March when suddenly they had
three at one shot. Of course, that's not the way to induct
anyone - one a day would have ensured more column space in the
newspapers.

Advani launches an election Yatra

No butchering in the wake of this new yatra is expected,
unlike during this infamous rath yatra to Ayodhya. Talk is that
the yatra is aimed at establishing Advanbi's importance for the
party, in the face of the awesome branding of Vajpayee as Nehru
ver.2.0 that is going on. Not only is he Nehru 2.0, he is also
Indira Gandhi 2.0, Warren Buffet and possibly, Jesus Christ in
the BJP's scheme of things. One relief is that at least,
ostensibly, this is talked about as a general election on the
plank of economic performance. So what if Muslim boys are
arrested for going on a date with Hindu girls in Madhya Pradesh?
Look at the bright, shining side, idiot.

Rao: The
resurrection

After his acquittal in all corruption and bribery cases, PV
Narasimha Rao could be 'inducted' back into Sonia's Congress
much before the Lok Sabha elections with much fanfare. Of
course, this entirely depends on how confortable Sonia feels
about the potential threat he can pose to her in the post
election Lok Sabha. In the off-chance that Congress manages a
reasonable number of seats, some of the wafflers of the
pre-election days may decide to join hands with the Congress if
Rao will the Congress candidate for prime minister. Knowing
Sonia, we know that if that happens, it will be the full consent
of Sonia and solemn promises exchanged in terms of how far Rao
will go in establishing himself. If nothing, Congress will have
a more acceptable public face. Within Congress, of course, many
may grumble. We do not have much relief either way - Rao is more
of a bore than Sonia.

We will be updating this page with more
information on the 2004 Indian general elections.